[7thGate]

Hello fellow Rogue! I leveled up in Auld Lang Syne, which was designed to provide a similar experience to what you are looking for. Unfortunately while we are still somewhat active on Blue, we don't have a lot of newer players. Green server took the majority of people looking for a non-tunnel gearing experience and we never really recovered the population. Its made leveling up in ALS more of a lonely experience than it used to be.

I did find leveling as a Rogue with found gear to be very rewarding. The Burning Rapier quest is a good one for a reasonable mid level weapon, and I used it for a long time. The Iksar Berserker Club from Kurn's is the strongest weapon you can reasonably get on your own for a very long time, so camping one when you're strong enough to clear the placeholders is a good idea.

There's a lot of good quests in the Qeynos areas. Take a look at the sewers early on, it can be fun to explore down there and there are some decent +hp earrings/rings down there. You'll want to blacksmith some banded as a base armor set.

You won't be able to solo Sarnak Berserkers for a long time, but once you can get an OT hammer. Don't hurt VS faction until you do. Dark Elf illusion gets you a lot of the way towards what you need, but that hammer is a godsend for getting places and the braids turnin is very good XP.

Take boats, explore some islands. There's a bunch of them in OOT. Try and get a friend to help you camp an Ancient Ring for JBoots. Skill up pickpocket, try to steal from guards or giants or other humanoid mobs and run for your life if you're caught.

Overall, explore, travel, have fun! Try to team up with people when you can. Most dungeons will have some type of upgrades for you, so can explore around and try out different places. Its not a particularly easy road, but it can be a fun one.